Parliament did its best to hold Steinhoff accountable for fraud - Carrim
African National Congress (ANC) MP Yunus Carrim, who chaired the Standing Committee on Finance at the time, said looking back, it was a major feat for Parliament to hold a multi-national corporate to account.
FILE: Former Steinhoff CEO, Markus Jooste. Picture: AFP
CAPE TOWN - The former chairperson of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance, Yunus Carrim, said he believed the legislature played its part as best it could to hold retail giant Steinhoff accountable for the fraud that robbed hundreds of people of their hard-earned pensions.
The only time the company’s former CEO, Markus Jooste, ever publicly explained what led to the company’s collapse was before a joint meeting of three parliamentary committees more than five years ago.
Jooste was expected to appear in court on Friday for the first time in connection with these crimes but took his own life on a beach in Hermanus where he lived on Thursday.
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After months of legal wrangling, Parliament finally got Jooste to appear before it, nine months after the Steinhoff saga made headlines in December 2017.
African National Congress (ANC) MP Yunus Carrim, who chaired the Standing Committee on Finance at the time, said looking back, it was a major feat for Parliament to hold a multi-national corporate to account.
"Parliament can’t substitute for the regulatory and oversight body that we legislated to deal precisely these crimes by the private sector. We just don’t have the accounting, forensic and other skills to deal with a global giant like Steinhoff."
Jooste dodged court proceedings in Germany last year and it ordered that his extradition be requested.
Steinhoff’s former chairperson, Christo Wiese, and chief financial officer, Ben le Grange, also appeared in Parliament ahead of Jooste in 2018.
"Could we have done more? Very little more. The regulatory bodies are acting, and we welcome it. Finally, I hope the state can find the millions that have disappeared and been hidden somewhere."
Carrim points out it took countries with more sophisticated capabilities like Germany and the Netherlands years to bring Steinhoff and Jooste to book.